GE Takes Over Times Square April 7

[Flabbergasted]

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/ge/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060405005781&newsLang=en&ndmConfigId=1001109&vnsId=681

World Health Day; `Picture a Healthy World' Campaign Firsts include a Simultaneous Broadcast on Seven Digital Billboards and a Broadway Partnership

FAIRFIELD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2006--GE (NYSE: GE) announced today that the company will celebrate World Health Day this Friday, April 7th with an integrated marketing "take over" of New York City's Times Square including the first simultaneous broadcast on all major digital billboards. The event will allow New Yorkers and tourists to experience GE's online "Picture a Healthy World" campaign, which encourages people to take responsibility for their own health.


The Times Square promotion is part of GE's new Healthcare Re-Imagined campaign, a multi-phase effort to redefine what is possible in healthcare. GE is running TV, print and online advertisements and recently launched "Picture a Healthy World," an interactive web site (www.ge.com/health) that invites visitors to contribute photos and stories describing what they do to stay healthy. GE will broadcast the submitted images in Times Square throughout the month of April. Photographs taken in Times Square on April 7 will be super-sized and displayed larger than life, 45-feet high by 27-feet wide, on the Reuters sign.

The elements of GE's Times Square "take over" include:

-- GE will be the first company to simultaneously broadcast on seven digital billboards within Times Square including The Reuters Sign at 3 Times Square, NASDAQ, ABC, NBC, MTV, Yahoo and the Toys"R"Us Times Square GeoffreyTron LED.

-- Times Square visitors will be invited to a 1900 Sq. ft "photography studio" located on Military Island, complete with healthy props, to have their photos taken - and broadcast 45-feet high by 27-feet wide on The Reuters Sign at 3 Times Square.

-- Also on Military Island, an amusement park style ride will allow visitors to take a journey through the human heart.

-- Costumed street teams will stroll through Times Square directing people to join the celebration to have their pictures taken, and distribute free picture magnets and water bottles.

-- GE is partnering with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to create the first corporate "in-theatre" promotion that will reach nearly 30,000 theater attendees. Broadway fans will receive a commemorative health-themed souvenir featuring Tony Award-winning actors Bernadette Peters, Bebe Neuwirth and Brian Stokes-Mitchell. GE will make a donation to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

"Healthcare Re-Imagined" highlights GE's unique abilities to leverage technological and biological breakthroughs to transform healthcare delivery from treating "late disease" to a focus on "early health" - where prediction, diagnosis, and information management are key to prevention and pre-symptomatic disease detection. GE Healthcare has a broad range of products and services that enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions.

GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work -- a diversified technology, media and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, television programming, and plastics, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.

GE's partners on this campaign include the World Health Organization (WHO), Frog Design, Blitz, OMD, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, The League of American Theatres and Producers, Playbill, Interference and Stuart Weissman Productions.

[marmar]

1. I still love NYC, always will....

but Gawd I can't stand Times Square. I booked a room at the Hilton Times Square in January and couldn't STAND that location. (The room was fine, but Times Square is a horrid tourist blight.) All these cheesy ass tourists seeking out the closest Applebees or TGI Fridays in NEW YORK CITY! How many other places can you get Tibetan, Russian and Peruvian food on the same block? Oy vey.

:rant:

OK, I'm better now.

[tech3149]

2. next time you're in town,

stay at the Royalton. You'll love it!

http://www.royaltonhotel.com/

[marmar]

4. Looks great on the website...

And it's far east enough of Times Square so as not to make me :puke: I'll check it out!

:pals:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. " ...which encourages people to take responsibility for their own health."

So lemme understand .... my mother-in-law's breast cancer was her fault? My father's narrowed carrotid was his fault? My mother's three heart attacks were her fault? My father-in-law's stroke was his fault? My daughter's asthma is her fault?

Hey GE ..... fuck you.

[Flabbergasted]

5. I'd rather Boycott you (GE)....?